Eight Black employees of a General Mills plant in Georgia have filed a class-action complaint against the brand over what they say is race-based discrimination from its white managers. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on June 2 by Gary Davis, Joe Davis, Devahn Jefferson, Keith McClinton, Donald Outlaw, E.J. Rivers and Naaman Smith, individually and on behalf of all other similarly situated employees.
They allege that General Mills and its managers fostered a hostile work environment and violated the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and both of the Georgia and Federal RICO Acts. The plaintiffs are current and former employees of General Mills who worked, or still work, at its manufacturing plant in Covington, Georgia during the last four years. The manufacturer of cereals including , Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cocoa Puffs opened two plants, known as the West Plant and East Plant, in 1988 and 1992.
TODAY.com reached out to Doug Dean, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, for a comment via email on June 7 but did not immediately hear back. The plaintiffs say that East Plant managers Jack Gilliam and Greg Cantrell “are believed to harbor discriminatory beliefs towards people of color and women,” according to the legal filing.
The suit goes on to list more than 20 pages of instances, which they claim proves that the managers “embraced a racially hostile work environment perpetuated by white supremacists who deny black employees�.
